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May 24, 2013

Friday, May 24, 2013, James Sajdak

Theme: Deal me in.

Each of the five theme answers are phrases with the last word of the phrase being a type of card game, clued in a modified clecho fashion. This is our 26th puzzle from James, and the first in 2013. I had the pleasure of blogging two earlier Friday efforts, one of which was a similarly themed puzzle relating to farms.

He does use the 15 x 16 grid to get his grid spanner in. He does it so seamlessly, you might not have noticed.

All our puzzles are available in the archives, as is the wonderful INTERVIEW done by C.C. I saw the theme when I got LONELY HEARTS, and without it I would have been dead in the water as there were many clues which strained my fading memory. I am not sure all of his cluing was according to Hoyle, but we must persevere. See if you agree with my favorites as we go through the solving.

18A. Card game horn music? : WINDS OF WAR.(10) A wonderful book by Herman Wouk; I was surprised that the simplest of card games WAR is now played for money by many at casinos.

25A. Card game where one person plays all the hands? : LONELY HEARTS.(12) Like many other trick taking games, HEARTS is best played with 4 people, who should be listening to this SONG.(2:02). Before we had dating sites we had Lonely Hearts ads.

40A. Card game played in dugouts? : DIAMOND SOLITAIRE.(16) Tiffany's in New York is credited with introducing the ring with just one lone stone. Baseball is played on a diamond, where the teams wait in dugouts.

55A. Card game by the Thames? : LONDON BRIDGE.(12) The most widely played and competitive of the bidding games. Bridge columns still run on the crossword page in the few newspapers left. My favorite memory (other than my father throwing cards in frustration when Aunt Dora trumped his Ace) LINK.(2:04). The 1831 bridge was moved to Lake Havasu City Arizona. A shout out to all our Arizona posters. (Where did you go Frenchie and Robin?)

66A. Card game requiring waterproof cards? : BATH TUB GIN.(10) Gin describes a number of games in the Gin/Rummy family. Knock Gin is a big money game in the northeast. Prohibition gave us the vile homemade SPIRITS,

Across:

1. This and that : BOTH. Simple, but I did not see it.

5. Cries : SOBS. Okay, now we are off. and the almost clecho 1D. Cried : BAWLED..

23. Do Jeeves's job : SHOW IN. Hey Vidwan, did you know P.G. Wodehouse was coming up, you had two references to him in the last week (one makes me blush)? I had a very hard time with this as Jeeves's job was to save Bertie from himself, played so well by Dr. House.

28. Wielder of a hammer called Mjölnir : THOR. I love the comic, hated the movie.

29. Trig function : SINE.

31. Hardly exciting : TAME. Lame, what's your game?

35. Popeil of infomercials : RON. One spring while in LA on business, my brother and I spend an afternoon with a Realtor touting houses for sale, and one was Ron Popeil's house, and sure enough every closet was stuffed with things he sold. Sadly no cell phone cameras in those days.

36. Mean : INTEND. Sometimes people intend to be mean.

38. Like some stocks : OTC. Over The Counter.

39. Thumbs-down votes : NAYS.

40. Retro phone feature : DIAL. Why was it called dial tone and is it now called digital tone?

41. China lead-in : INDO.

42. Iconic sales rep : AVON LADY. Who's calling?

43. "Dedicated to the ___ Love": '50s-'60s hit : ONE I. Made more famous by the Mama's and the Papas and the Shirelles.

44. Touch down : LAND.

49. Addis ___ : ABABA. This capital was in the first puzzle I blogged at the Corner.

50. Out of one's class? : TRUANT. Great clue, the word comes from the French for vagabond.

52. Conundrum : ENIGMA. This had me puzzled.

53. Armadas : NAVIES. 1588?

54. Large search area : THE NET. This had me fooled for a while thinking outside.

56. "Splish Splash" singer : DARIN. More 50's music. I love Kevin Spacey in the movie Beyond the Sea, worth watching, but he was not the ORIGINAL.(2:18).

65. 1960-'61 chess champ : TAL. I have no memory of this CHAMP. Bobby Fischer is my first chess master. I never knew we had a Latvian on top of the chess world. This with FLYNN, almost did me in, but the L gave the ta da.

67. Shih ___ : TZU. Woof, woof. More puppies. A breed originating from China with a name sure to make the little ones giggle. My ex has two.

68. One of LBJ's beagles : HIM. The other was HER and there was quite the scandal when he picked on up by the ears.

Well this puzzle has gone to the dogs, so I guess it is time for me to get my pooper scooper and get out of here, leaving you all to your memories.

53 comments:

Almost gave up on this one, to be honest. I got DIAMOND SOLITAIRE early on, but for some reason I thought that was actually the name of a real card game and didn't realize for the longest time that we were dealing with card game puns.

Elsewhere, I was stymied by DELLA, NANCY, WONTON (soup, yes, but not noodles), HADJ, XRAY, SEARLE... Just brutal all over the place for me.

I did manage to eventually make it through unassisted, however, until I hit the crossing of HIM and TUMS. "Tablet named after an organ"? TUMS??? I sort of see it now thanks to Lemonade's write up, but I was thinking about some sort of PDA and not a pill...

Whew! After my initial pass the grid had so much white showing, it reminded mr of our yard after the Feb blizzard ended. The breakthrough came when I solved BATHTUB GIN. Up to then, I was really stymied by the theme clues.

50D Out of ones class/TRUANT reminded me of me! But that was long ago.

The NW corner was the last section to complete and it nearly did me in. I was sure DEET was wrong, but Deyt looked worse and I felt TINGLE was right, not Tingly.

Fun theme. I have played all these games, with endless rounds of War. In Hearts the one who captures the most tricks wins with one exception. If you lose every trick you are the winner. If the other players catch on they try to force you to take one trick. My kids were so intent on "Get mommy!" that I often sneakily lost them all and won.Clecho: admit and show in.D..O. Landau always makes me think of Mission Impossible.I never heard of Della.Bath tub gin gave me my start.Wontons are noodle dough cooked in the soup.Lemonade, your blogs are alawys alawys interesting and clever.

Thank you Lemonade, for your humorous and witty blog. It was fun filling the letters in, as you read them out. And when I got the full house, I yelled."Bingo'.

Thanks for mentioning Jeeves and me, alas, I was trying for 'Show-wit', since 'Valet' would not fit. Still reading, P.G. Wodehouse - I find it very relaxing before going to sleep. At 135+ books, I have a long way to go ..... I visited (past his - ) final residence in Southampton NY, before he died in 1975.

For Celebrex developer, I 'got' Searle, though I thought of 'Pfizer' first. My wife says, Celebrex is now being prescribed again, after the plethora of product liability lawsuits. Apparently, it is still very much in fashion, especially for orthopedic cases.

I also asked her, just now, if the tummy was an organ, and she says,'Sure it is'. But maybe we should ask another health professional, for a second opinion, just to be doubly sure.

Took me an age to get a foothold here, but finally with lots of WAGs for all the unknowns, I was done except for the NW, because I never got WINDS. I had WAILED/BAWLED too, so only after cheating here did I get it finished. And then I discovered I was wrong with DARLA/DERLA too, having never heard of either that or DEARE.

Today was a workout! Thought the same as so many others. OLIO? No, BOTH. I will admit I thought of BUTTLE, but I already had perps, so I knew that wasnt right. Had quite a few WAGS, but they all were correct. Thanks for the Arizona shout-out, Lemon! I have lived here over 30 years, and never seen the London Bridge.

For those of you who were slowed down by the reference to Winds of War HERMAN WOUK has long been a favorite of crossword puzzle creators because of the popularioty and clarity of his works, ranging from the hugely successful Caine Mutiny (who can forget Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg) the insightful Marjorie Morningstar and the powerful Winds of War amd War and Remembrance .

The 98 year old author took 13 years to research and write his two volume epic of World War II, and published a book last year.

I got sooooo close to getting this one, but in the end, no cigar. (I don't smoke, so who cares). I got that dumb DEE_, but didn't know whether to put TAME or LAME and unfortunately went with LAME. I still don't get it--what is "Off! Deep Woods"? Then I stupidly had SEND instead of SENT and kept wondering what DHENET was. But I loved every one of the themes, and that impressive grid spanner in the middle, and, of course, ARF! So many thanks, James--and you too, Lemony, for a great write-up.

One frustration is that I thought I really knew my comics, but DELLA stumped me (I was thinking DAISY Duck, for some reason). Of course I thought bear CUB or some other critter and so never thought of cub reporter. Got OLSEN only thanks to perps. But I know my Al Capp, so I got RASSLE.

Finally, I loved being reminded of "Dedicated to the One I Love." Brought back happy memories of lots of high school slow dances.

Technically a DNF because I too was thinking of a computer tablet not TUMS. Did not have the "M". Also, I had to look up the five pillars of Islam in order to get the fill. I so wanted to out in FYI for BTW, but it never would fit.

Lastly, or should I say, BTW, Martin LANDAU (Rollin Hand) was married to Barbra Bain (Cinnamon Carter) during MI TV run.

This was a DNF, but I felt good about how much of it I solved. First pass through across, I perhaps got a dozen answers, then only about 10 going down, but then with an extra letter in some across answers, I picked up a few more. Kept at it until I almost got the whole puzzle. I did WAY better than any usual Friday.Thanks for the fun puzzle and Lemon for the explanations.

Spitzboov, I was so busy yesterday keeping up with the news about my new grandson, I forgot to comment to you about what a handsome one you have. He is a cutie! His dad will have to chase the girls away when he gets older.

Did I actually spell Bobby Darin's name DAReN?Thanks, Lemonade, for a great write-up and lots of links.Never heard of the TINGLER. Bela Lugosi scared me as a kid.Hand up for olio and buttle.We've had HADJ before, but thought it was a pilgrimage. Nit: Horns are NOT winds.Kept running through all the brass instruments and came up with nothing.woodWINDS are NOT horns. So there.(Bronx cheer)) from Edith Ann.

Toughie today. I gradually worked my way around the N ,E, and got most of the south. But there were too many unknowns in the SW so ended up getting red ltr help with D in NASD, and Y in FLYNN. The theme was helpful to solve most of it. Nice shout-out to BRIDGE.ARF could just as easily have been clued as "There's someone at the door". At least HADJ was easy this time.

SInce no one mentioned Phineas & Ferb, I'll come out of lurk mode (BTW, thanks all - I read & learn daily). P&F is the funniest cartoon to come out in a long time and the only thing I can watch/stand with my kids on Disney channel. The plot is almost the same with every episode, but it is the intertextuallity that will make you laugh out loud. Fun program.

The was an odd-looking grid at first but it lead to an enjoyable puzzle with some clever clues. "Can I Go Out?" for ARF was my favorite.

I played Hearts as a kid but when I got my first job at Hughes Aircraft Company, I came across a few people who played it pretty seriously. In most casual games, most people try to avoid losing and so dump hearts or especially the Queen of Spades on whoever they can so they don't have to take it themselves. People who play this way seem to think there is one loser (whoever goes over 100). Whereas the engineers at Hughes felt there was only one winner (whoever was low man when someone went over 100). When I first started playing at lunch with some teacher friends at school, I remember one day when someone threw the Queen on me to put me out even though the culprit wasn't low at the time. So somebody else won but in his mind , he didn't lose. It almost resulted in a fist fight. Finally, I convinced them of the 'other' was to think about the game. We started keeping day-by-day track of the winner (low man when somebody went over 100). Peace was finally restored.

HI Y'all! I WAGd my way through this like I had a telepathic line to James & Rich. 2 a.m seems to be my best time to puzzle. Great one!

One hangup at Armadas: wanted "fleets" then ships then wait for perps to get NAVIES.

Played lots of HEARTS when young. We called capturing all the HEARTS, "Shoot the Moon". Also played a lot of GIN rummy. Can't remember how to play well enough to teach my grandkids. Didn't have time to play many games with my kids.

Thanks, Lemon for a great expo. You mentioned "Marjorie Morningstar" which was one of my favorite re-reads as a young woman.

YR: I laughed when you said "BATHTUB GIN gave me my start." I knew what you meant, but had a momentary image of you as a prohibition bootlegger making your fortune with the stuff.

Sallie: Sorry for your setback. I think port site infections are pretty common. I had two friends who had that happen. The good news is doctors have experience treating it. My friends did okay. Good luck!

Sallie, sorry to hear your are having more problems, but it seems you have a great attitude - and that counts for everything Good luck, and keep on truckin'!!

pas de chat, PK beat me to it, but I agree with her that both horns and reeds are WIND instruments.

So, Montana, is that the darling little Timothy Arthur in your avatar today?? He is really a cutie!! Lemony, you'd better keep Charlotte protected -seems there are quite a few new little ones who may be vying for her attention is a few years, LOL!!

I couldn't decide between NAYS or the Scottish NAES on the perp so I left the cross at NANCE, because who would name a city NANCY? The WWII battle didn't ring a bell. I don't think I was familiar with the song ERES Tu either, and I only got it by way of the crosses. The song that came to my mind was Je t'aime; one of the most "uncomfortable" songs to listen to. http://youtu.be/9krvMqLnc5U

Anon (2:17), please feel free to skip this post since it won't live up to your high expectations.

I remember the opening scenes of "Saving Private Ryan." It gave me a pretty real impression of the terrifying horrors that the soldiers landing at the French beaches must have experienced.

That same group of engineers at Hughes introduced me to a different version of chess called Kriegspiel. (You can Google Kriegspiel chess.) Two people played with a barrier in between so the players couldn't see the opponent's board. There was a third person involved (the caller?) who looked at both boards and could model both black and white pieces correctly. He would tell the players if one of them made an illegal move or took an opponent's piece or was in check, etc. So the players had to surmise the board layout from the information they got. It was challenging and fun. I've never seen it played anywhere else.

I had hoped to call my friend and go for a bike ride but I got stuck running errands that took much longer that I had expected. My DVR/TV remote had become very iffy so I went to the local Time Warner storefront for another one. Turns out they had moved about four miles south in an area with a lot of traffic. Oh well... I got the new one, figured out how to program it to control my TV and I'm back in business again. It seems to work much more reliably.

Hello everybody. Just got back from a very pleasant visit and lunch with a couple of people with whom we have been doing business for almost 10 years, who were in town for personal reasons. I had never met them in person and I'm glad I finally did; they are charming folks and we easily passed four hours in chit chat. Now to read Lemonade's writeup and all your comments.

I'm still under the weather but did manage to finish this ENIGMAtic puzzle in between naps. Most of the time I was in James's wave length and had to chuckle at the "card" games. But it took a long, long time for WINDS OF WAR because I thought a horn was not a wind.

Once LOGJAM was filled, I got TINGLY and didn't realize the error; the same at INTEND where I had the wrong tense, INTENT. Ah, but it was fun.

Congratulations, Montana, on your new grandbaby. They are a joy, aren't they.

Harrison Ford was on David Letterman. I was expecting an enjoyable conversation but, in my opinion, Harrison Ford in person is about as entertaining as a doorknob. He tried to tell a joke. The joke wasn't bad but listening to him try to tell it was a painful experience. Here's the joke: Two cannibals meet one day. The first cannibal says, “You know, I just can’t seem to get a tender Missionary. I’ve baked them, I’ve roasted them, I’ve stewed them, I’ve barbecued them, I’ve tried every sort of marinade. I just cannot seem to get them tender.” The second cannibal asks, “What kind of Missionary do you use?” The other replied, “You know, the ones that hang out at that place at the bend of the river. They have those brown cloaks with a rope around the waist and they’re sort of bald on top with a funny ring of hair on their heads.”“Ah, ha!” the second cannibal replies. “No wonder … those are friars!”

The new remote has solved all the DVR frustrations. No more cussing at the machine when it doesn't respond properly. Now if I could only find something good to watch...

If you love something, set it free. If it comes back, maybe you're in love with a boomerang?

Two blondes go for a walk in the forest. Now we wouldnt think of perpetuating the stereotype, and we resent the fact that blonde women are thought less intelligent than anyone else. And so did these two. So they're walking, discussing life, nature, both being amatuer wildlife enthusiasts. They come across some tracks.

One says "I know these tracks. They're moose tracks"

The other says "You're close, but they're actually elk tracks"

The first says "I lived in the forest with my grandfather. He taught me a lot about wildlife. They're moose tracks"

And so they argue back and forth for quite a bit. And then a train runs over them.

Manac, good one! Oops! Now all the blondes on the blog are going to be on your case.

When Sofia Vergara was on Ellen a while back, Ellen found a photo when Sofia had blonde hair and was a Guess jean model. Ellen asked her, "Ok, since you've been both, you're a perfect person to ask. Who has more fun, blondes or brunettes?" Sofia thought for a bit, grinned and answered, "In my experience, it's the one with the bigger boobs!"

I heard via e-mail from Manac. No other takers on the two geography questions?